What Did You Want To Be Before You Became What You Are?

February 3, 1986|By Lisanne Renner of the Sentinel Staff

It probably has been years since your great-aunt bent down, pinched your cheek and cooed, ''What do you want to be when you grow up?'' Putting that question to some Central Florida grown-ups helps to show how often childhood ambitions jibe with adult accomplishments.

Sloan Wilson, the Winter Park author who wrote the novel The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, published his first short story at age 9. The story, which was about an English bull terrier, appeared in his Ormond Beach school newspaper. In 1944, when Wilson was 24, The New Yorker published his first poem.

''There was never any doubt in my mind that I wanted to be a writer,'' Wilson said. ''Both my parents were writers, so it seemed a natural thing for me to do. . . . Those of us who find our vocations early are most fortunate.'' Any kid captivated by comic books might want to grow up to be like Bill Black. He and his wife, Rebekah, publish the Longwood-based Americomics line, creating noble heroes who wipe out vil- lains with blams! and ker-pows!

''I learned to draw when I was a kid by tracing comics and emulating comic books,'' said Bill Black, 42. All he ever wanted to do was create comic books and produce science-fiction movies. Instead of becoming another George Lucas, he wound up making training films. Publishing comic books, though, became a childhood dream realized.

Lots of kids want to become firefighters, so what did Orange County's acting fire chief want to be? An artist. James Sims, 50, became a firefighter out of financial necessity after finishing art school. He still paints and he also teaches art.

Nursing, another perennial ambition among kids, appealed to Janice Springfield until she ''saw blood and immediately fainted.'' In high school she considered law, but she never got an opportunity to go to college.

One day in 1956, Springfield visited a friend who worked at a bank and the bank president asked if she was there to apply for a job. Why not? she figured. Filing checks was her first job. Now, at age 50, Springfield is a group president in charge of nine Sun Banks, one of which she manages. Unlike those who find their vocations early, Springfield said, ''I just sort of fell into banking, and that worked out great.''

Kids believe that any American can grow up to be president. If actor Ronald Reagan could become president, it shouldn't seem odd that T. Neil Fritz, the 31-year-old executive director of Orlando's Tropical Theatre, once aimed for the presidency. While in the fourth grade he worked on Barry Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign (''the biggest joke on my resume,'' he calls it).

After majoring in political science in college, he worked for a senator in Washington, but when the senator lost his bid for re-election, Fritz lost his job. He turned to playwriting at Washington's Source Theatre Company and later founded the Tropical in Orlando.

Balloonist Joe Kittinger yearned to be a pilot. He wound up becoming an aviation hero in 1984 when he conquered the Atlantic in the world's first solo balloon crossing. ''You dream hard enough,'' he said, and ''about anything will happen.''

As an adult, Kittinger became an Air Force colonel and an aerospace engineer. At 57, he's retired now, but for kicks he is a skywriter for Rosie O'Grady's Flying Circus.

When he was a child growing up in Orlando, Kittinger built model planes and sent them flying out of his bedroom window. He also rode his bike to the airport to ''sit and admire those beautiful airplanes and dream about flying them. Now, 50 years later,'' said Kittinger by telephone from his hangar, ''I'm at that very airport flying planes. When I grow up, I want to do exactly what I'm doing right now.''